Austerity and the new working poor

The privileged position of these establishment politicians is even more galling in that news of their forecast pay rise coincided with a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) charity which shows a big increase in the numbers of working poor in Britain (see below).

At the same time, the New Economics Foundation think tank says: "Workers on low and middle incomes are experiencing the biggest decline in their living standards since reliable records began in the mid-19th century."

Some of the JRF report's main findings:

The number of workers paid below the living wage (currently £7.65, £8.80 in London) rose from 4.6 million to five million in 2012.

50% of working families in poverty have an adult paid below the living wage

The fall in median income over the last two years has wiped out all the gains of the previous decade, the JRF said.

Median incomes in the UK in 2011-12, in real terms, were just below what they were in 2001-02 - £367 a week compared with £368

Incomes of the poorest 10% have been falling since 2004-05.

Average incomes have fallen by 8% since their peak in 2008. As a result, around two million people have an income that while above today's poverty line, would have been below the poverty line in 2008

6.7 million working families are living below the poverty line - a rise of 500,000 from 2012

Julia Unwin, chief executive of the JRF, said: "Hard work is not working. We have a labour market that lacks pay and protection, with jobs offering precious little security and paltry wages that are insufficient to make ends meet."

The government can claim that the number of pensioners in poverty is at a 30-year low... But, 6.3 million retired and unemployed families are living in poverty

400,000 families have been hit by a double whammy of benefit cuts from the 'bedroom tax' and council tax benefit. Two-thirds of these families were already in poverty